quiz 1 literary terms

Question 1

foil

Answer 1

a character who contrasts with another— usually with the protagonist— in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character

Question 2

foot

Answer 2

a unit of meter within a line of poetry

Question 3

foreshadowing

Answer 3

when the writer provides clues or hints that suggest or predict future event in a story.

Question 4

free verse

Answer 4

poetry without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Often used to capture the sounds and rhythms of ordinary speech.

Question 5

genre

Answer 5

a type or category of literature. The four main genres are fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

Question 6

haiku

Answer 6

a traditional form of Japanese poetry, usually dealing with nature. A haiku has three lines and describes a single moment, feeling or thing. The first and third lines contain five syllables and the second line contains seven syllables.

Question 7

heroic couplet or closed couplet

Answer 7

a couplet consisting of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought.

Question 8

historical fiction

Answer 8

fiction that explores a past time period and may contain references to actual people and events.

Question 9

humor

Answer 9

the quality that provokes laughter or amusement. Writers create humor through exaggeration, sarcasm, amusing descriptions, irony, and witty dialogue.

Question 10

hyperbole

Answer 10

a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect.

(hi-per-bo-lee)

Question 11

idiom

Answer 11

a phrase or expression that means something different from what the words actually say (for example, using the phrase “over his head” instead of “He doesn’t understand”)

Question 12

imagery

Answer 12

the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste.

Question 13

irony

Answer 13

a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens. Irony spices up a literary work by adding unexpected twists and allowing the reader to become more involved with the characters and plot.

Question 14

legend

Answer 14

a story handed down from the past about a specific person, usually someone of heroic accomplishments.

Question 15

limerick

Answer 15

a short humorous poem composed of five lines that usually has the rhyme scheme aabba, created by two rhyming couplets followed by a fifth line that rhymes with the first couplet. A limerick typically has a sing-song rhythm.

Question 16

lyric poetry

Answer 16

a song-like poem written mainly to express the feelings or emotions of a single speaker.

(LEER-ick)

Question 17

memoir

Answer 17

an autobiographical writing that covers only a piece of the writer’s life.

Question 18

metaphor

Answer 18

a type of figurative language in which a comparison is made between two things that are essentially unalike but may have one quality in common. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not contain an explicit word of comparison, such as “like” or “as”.

(met-AH-for)

Question 19

meter

Answer 19

the regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables.

Question 20

verbal irony

Answer 20

when the speaker means something different than what he or she is saying

Question 21

dramatic irony

Answer 21

when the audience knows something the characters don’t know

Question 22

dramatic irony

Answer 22

when the audience knows something the characters don’t know

Question 23

situational irony

Answer 23

the different between what is expected to happen and the way events actually work out